Flame of the Dead, Black Magic
by The Ingenue's Shadow
Summary: Post OotP. Sirius is sending Harry letters, but Dumbledore and Lupin tell him not to take them. An unamed student, however, seems desperate for Harry to take the letters . . . featuring Sirius, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Draco, Cho, Lupin, Tonks, DD, Snape, Mc
1. Now That I Have Your Attention

This fanfiction is temporarily closed for obvious reasons. I will post it again as soon as Ellie's enemies and allies have been clearly identified at Salem. 


	2. Letters 1 Through 3: A Silly Thing

This fanfiction is temporarily unavailable. Please try again in a little while; the site may be crowded. 


	3. Letters 4 Through 5: The Art of Trade

This fanfiction is temporarily unavailable. Please try again in a little while; the site may be crowded. 


	4. Letters 6 Through 8: Take It

This fanfiction is temporarily closed for obvious reasons. I will post it again as soon as Ellie's enemies and allies have been clearly identified at Salem. 


	5. Letters 7 Through 8: Dear Sarah

This fanfiction is temporarily unavailable. Please try again in a little while; the site may be crowded. 


	6. Letters 9 Through 74

AUTHOR'S NOTE: it's long, but it's the end! Go for it!  
  
*Dear Sarah,  
  
Hi. I know I just keep going over memories when I write to you, but it feels good; it's the only way I've been staying sane. Don't assume, Sarah. I'm not drinking; I haven't touched a drop since I died. Before, though . . . it was bad. I was sober until Peter got away, then I stole a bunch of booze from a pub and got drunk in the woods. I'm telling you, it was bad. And then, all of those years when I was Harry's godfather; Dumbledore kept telling me to stay away from it, he kept telling me to at least make sure that Remus or someone was around when I got drunk. But what does Dumbledore know about me? How does he know what I was feeling? I'd almost had my innocence back, and because of a single traitor my life was ruined. I didn't try to kill myself, because I had to live for Harry, but I wasn't right there with him, so what did it matter if I was stoned? I just wanted escape. . . . One night, Remus came into the house where I was staying when I was drunk. He was furious, if you can picture that. It was actually really funny. He kept screaming and yelling at me about who-knows-what, responsibility for Harry or something, I don't know - I wasn't listening, and finally he hit me. Remus hit me! I was unconscious for a while after that, and when I woke up, he told me I'd run into a wall or some other pathetic lie. He didn't refuse to perform the spell to get me sober again, though. Remus always pulls through for me like that. You said you would, but you haven't. Don't worry about it, though. I love you anyway. Sweet dreams,  
  
Sirius*  
  
Over the next few months, a set of very strange things happened. Cho, although back together with Harry, became best friends with a very un- giggly, un-suffocating Ellie Santavaj. Hermione spoke an average of a hundred words a week, and refused to talk in class; her grades also went down. Harry, by this time, had updated both Hermione and Ron on everything that was happening, and Ron seemed to be keeping a very vital secret from him, which was not like Ron at all.  
  
The ghosts altogether disappeared, just like that. The teachers, in Harry's opinion, knew exactly where the ghosts were but denied any knowledge of their absence. Strangely enough, this did not include Professor Binns. The Ravenclaw Quidditch team started winning for the first year since Harry could remember, but it was not because of their newest member, but Cho Chang. This was because of Santavaj, naturally, so Harry couldn't stand it that his girlfriend was best friends with his enemy. He had hated her ever since she attacked Hermione.  
  
*Dear Sarah,  
  
Hi, again. Damn, I wish I could hear your voice. I don't know where I'm going over here. It's starting to worry me, but now that you're the only one taking my letters, it's all I've got, literally. I've been surviving off them, somehow. I have the feeling that if you stop taking my letters, that I will go somewhere else. The only problem is, I don't know where that somewhere else is and I'm too damn scared to give up the little communication I have here. Yes, scared, Sarah, me! Remember back in school when things were normal? If I'd known that scared would be a feeling I'd have later on, I'd have shot myself in the head. Remember when I climbed that tower and named it after myself? I wasn't scared then. I had no idea what scared could feel like. I didn't care if I died because I didn't think about it, abut now I have so much time that thinking about death is all I can do. Was I such a horrible person that this is my punishment, not being certain whether I am dead or not? Save me from worry, Sarah. Don't stop taking these letters, do it for me.  
  
Sirius*  
  
Then, in March, the climax came together. Harry was studying in the library when Ron rushed in and said, "Harry! Come on! You've got to see this!"  
  
"What?" Harry haphazardly mumbled; he had been studying History of Magic.  
  
"Oh, and Dumbledore says to bring your letters from Sirius!" Ron added hastily.  
  
"Dumbledore? What's he got to with it?" Harry said, but followed Ron downstairs. He kept Sirius' letters in his pocket at all times, so they didn't have to stop by the Gryffindor common room. Ron ran him all the way down to Professor Letni's office, where a large sum of people were crowded already.  
  
Harry looked around. It was Lupin and Tonks, Dumbledore, Professor Letni, Snape, Hermione, and, of course, Ellie Santavaj. When Ron and Harry came in, Professor Letni was on her knees, bent over and sobbing. Her fragile hands clutched a stack of parchment, which she held close to her chest and would not let anyone touch.  
  
"Hermione and I caught her," said Ron proudly, pointing at the miserable wreck of Professor Letni on the floor.  
  
"Ah, Harry," said Dumbledore, "You've arrived. Please give me your letters."  
  
Dumbledore was already holding seven letters in his hand, and the other one reached out to take Harry's. Harry handed them over reluctantly. "Sarah?" prompted Dumbledore, turning to Professor Letni.  
  
"You can't have them!" Professor Letni sobbed, turning her tear- stained face to Dumbledore. "I can't give them to you! You know what they mean to me . . ."  
  
"I am very sorry to do this," Dumbledore said sincerely, then pointed his wand at the parchment in Letni's arms and whispered, "accio!" It flew out of her arms and landed in Dumbledore's, on top of the other papers. Dumbledore flipped through all of the letters, then stopped at Harry's.  
  
"Harry," he said, "these are not Sirius' letters to you."  
  
"What? Yes they are!" said Harry defensively.  
  
Dumbledore handed the parchment back to Harry, and Harry saw that they were just ordinary, *blank,* pieces of parchment.  
  
"These aren't my letters!" he said quickly. He did not want Dumbledore to think that he was trying to trick him.  
  
"Then where are they?" said Snape testily.  
  
"I - I don't know," stuttered Harry.  
  
Then a teasing, malicious voice came from behind Dumbledore. "You'll never find them . . ." laughed Santavaj.  
  
"Where are Potter's letters?" demanded Snape.  
  
Santavaj looked as though she wanted to punch out Snape. She moved forward, but Dumbledore put out his arm.  
  
Snape smiled very evilly. "I'm sure I can find something in my storage cabinet you'll enjoy," he said coyly, his eyes never leaving Santavaj.  
  
Santavaj's eyes narrowed and she hissed, "fine," before leaving, purposely knocking Lupin's shoulder aside on the way. Tonks moved to comfort Professor Letni, and Santavaj returned a few minutes later with Cho Chang, who looked thoroughly confused.  
  
"Ellie, what the-" Cho was saying until she saw the scene, "Professor Letni! Are you alright?" Cho rushed over to help the teacher, but Santavaj pulled her back and pointed her wand at Cho, muttered "Edisni!" and above Cho's head appeared a translucent blue box, with Harry's letters plainly in it. Santavaj pulled out the letters and handed them to Dumbledore, waving away the box with her wand.  
  
Snape looked furious. "How *dare* you, use a student of this school as subject for that charm! It is very dark magic-"  
  
Santavaj spun around to curse Snape but he got to it first. He stunned her and she collapsed on the ground in a second.  
  
"Severus, that was . . ." Dumbledore couldn't seem to find a word to say so he said, "inevitable."  
  
"I agreed to it," Cho said suddenly from Santavaj's side. Cho pulled out her own wand and brought Santavaj to, then helped her up, "it's fine, don't worry," she said.  
  
Dumbledore sat before Professor Letni's fireplace and took the top two letters off his stack, letting them fall into the fire and making Harry want to throw up. His last connection to Sirius . . . gone.  
  
"Harry Potter," Dumbledore said, almost to himself as Harry's letters went up in flames. Dumbledore then took the next fifty-some letters off the stack and threw them in the fire as well, causing a shriek from Professor Letni, who was practically being held back by Tonks. "Sarah Letni," said Dumbledore as he did this. This continued, "Molly Weasley," Ron looked shocked, "Severus Snape," Snape looked menacing, "Remus Lupin," Lupin's face showed no emotion, "Nymphadorea Tonks," Tonks had a heartbreaking look of loss on her face, "and Albus Dumbledore." Dumbledore placed the last letter in the fire.  
  
Dumbledore quickly turned to everyone else in the room. "Whatever you do, don't make eye contact with him. Harry, are you listening? You cannot meet his eyes."  
  
Harry nodded, almost certain who "he" was. Almost immediately after Dumbledore said this, a dark form emerged from the fire. Harry recognized it immediately as Sirius, and in his human form. He stumbled into the room, and looked around at the people in it.  
  
"Sirius," Dumbledore said, "you have been sent a martyr demon. If you want to move on the realm of the dead, then you need to pass yourself over to her."  
  
Harry held up his hand so that he could not see Sirius' eyes, but watching the rest of his face could tell that Sirius was listening to nothing Dumbledore was saying, but grinning around at the room of people.  
  
"Harry!" he called happily, and Harry could hear Sirius make his way over to him, "Ron! Hermione! I miss it here so much; how are you all?"  
  
It was just like one of his letters. Obscenely cheerful, considering that he was dead. Then Lupin spoke, quietly and coldly.  
  
"Stay away from them, Sirius."  
  
"Lupin? Why? Oh, it's amazing to see you all! Tonks, stop averting your eyes like that . . . I want to see what color they are today . . ." then Sirius stopped, and his smile faded. "Sarah?" he whispered, "Sarah, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"  
  
Sirius bent down to Professor Letni and lifted up her chin. Her eyes were closed, in attempt to not look Sirius in the eyes, but she let him hold her face as she cried. Sirius looked so confused, so concerned that she was upset.  
  
"How do they know each other?" Harry hissed at Ron.  
  
"They got engaged a week before he was arrested," Ron whispered back.  
  
"That is quite enough, Sirius!" Lupin yelled, his eyes open and looking fiercely at Sirius. He caught Santavaj by the wrist and pulled her forward, holding her in front of him.  
  
"Remus, what's going on?" said Sirius cautiously.  
  
"You're *dead,* Sirius," Lupin said, "You've been sent a martyr demon."  
  
Sirius stood still, saying nothing.  
  
"Pass yourself to her," Lupin said, repeating Dumbledore's words.  
  
"No," said Sirius.  
  
"What do you mean?" Lupin asked through gritted teeth.  
  
"Look at me, Remus!" Sirius exclaimed, "I'm here, I'm *right here.* Yeah, I died! But now I'm back! Now I can take care of Harry; I can start over!"  
  
"Step in," Lupin said coldly.  
  
Ellie Santavaj was going white again. Her skin was pasty and whitening, her lips blue and her hair going platinum. She looked as if she was about to collapse, even though Lupin was holding her shoulders. She had stopped making attempts to get out of his grasp by now.  
  
"No!" Sirius shouted. "How can you ask me to do that? Look at Sarah! I'll be happy again, Remus! Sarah and I will be together, and Harry won't have to live at his aunt and uncle's-"  
  
"STEP IN!" Lupin yelled at Sirius. Sirius looked from Santavaj to Lupin.  
  
Ellie Santavaj's head dropped. Lupin suddenly let go of her, but she did not fall. First it was her skin, then her hair, it had caught fire, burst into flames, which licked the air. She looked up at Sirius with defiance and Harry noticed that her eyes, also were on fire. He wondered why Dumbledore did not stop her from burning alive in the flames that consumed her.  
  
"SIRIUS!" screamed Lupin.  
  
Sirius took a cautious step forward and placed one of his large feet on top of Santavaj's. It disappeared into hers. He did the same with his other foot and leaned forward, Professor Letni cried out. Harry wanted to; it was like watching Sirius die all over again and he couldn't stand it. He couldn't turn away, either, though. A force stronger than wind was pulling Sirius into Santavaj and she only returned to her normal state (if you could call her normal) once Sirius was entirely gone.  
  
Her hair regained its sandy color and her skin came back to life. Her eyes returned to their stony grey and held the same arrogance that they'd had since the first day she'd come. Harry wanted to throw something at her; he'd had Sirius and instead there was . . . her.  
  
"Ellie?" Cho was the first to speak.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"What's going on?"  
  
"Let's go."  
  
"No," said Dumbledore. "Miss Santavaj, you are the only one going. Harry, can you please take Miss Santavaj upstairs to Professor McGonagall? Miss Santavaj, the portkey is the blue mug. You'll have to tell Professor McGonagall that; I changed it this morning."  
  
Santavaj unhappily nodded and left; Harry ran after her. On the second floor, Cho, Ron and Hermione caught up with them.  
  
"Ellie, *what* is going on?" Cho demanded, bringing all five of them to a halt.  
  
Santavaj glared at Hermione, "Go ahead, Know-it-all."  
  
Hermione looked a little surprised, but began, "Sometimes people die when they were actually supposed to live for a little longer, sometimes years, sometimes days. Either way, if they do, then their name goes down on a list. Sirius wasn't supposed to die last year, Harry. He was supposed to live forty-nine more years, but he didn't.  
  
"This put Sirius in a very nasty position, you see. He was sent to a sort of no-man's-land, where he could communicate with everyone here but we couldn't communicate with him. Two things had to happen for him to be able to move onward to wherever people go when they die, he had to be accepted as gone, and his martyr demon had to sacrifice herself in the defeat of Sirius' death source.  
  
"Santavaj - er, Ellie - is Sirius' martyr demon. She's here at Hogwarts because she had to be kept safe from Bellatrix Lestrange until all of Sirius' letters were destroyed and his spirit was passed into her. If it hadn't, then there would have been no hope for him."  
  
"What do you mean, 'martyr demon'?" asked Ron suspiciously.  
  
"Now that Sirius' spirit is inside of her," Hermione continued, "she has to kill Bellatrix Lestrange and then she will die herself."  
  
"What?!" Cho said, looking at Santavaj.  
  
"Sorry, Cho," said Santavaj, looking very sorry. 'Sorry' was an expression Harry had never seen on Santavaj's face before.  
  
They all walked up to McGonagall's office in silence and opened the door, but McGonagall wasn't there.  
  
"Where's she gone?" Ron wondered.  
  
"Fuck," said Santavaj, startling everyone.  
  
(A/N: I HAVE DECIDED TO ENTIRELY IGNORE THE MAJORITY OF RULES CONCERNING PORTKEYS FOR THIS STORY. PLEASE DO NOT KILL ME SINCE I AM ACKNOWLEDGING THE INCORRECTNESS.)  
  
The coffee mug lay on Professor McGonagall's desk, on its side with tea soaking the desk around it. At once, several things happened very quickly.  
  
Ellie Santavaj reached for the mug.  
  
Cho screamed "no!" and ran at Ellie.  
  
Harry realized what would happen to Cho if she landed herself wherever Bellatrix Lestrange was and tried to get there first.  
  
To make a very long, obvious story short, Harry, Cho and Ellie Santavaj all grabbed the portkey and went hurtling towards wherever- Bellatrix-Lestrange-was.  
  
All three of them landed with a smarting on a cold stone floor. Harry felt Cho next to him and helped her up. Santavaj was quite furious.  
  
"Idiots! You're going to get yourselves *killed!*" she hissed.  
  
"There is no way I'm letting you sacrifice yourself," Cho shot back.  
  
"It's who I am. I'm not real, Cho! I'm just a demon." Santavaj said, irritated.  
  
"I don't care what you are," Cho said, "You're the best friend I've ever had and no one's spirit is worth you. I want you to stay here . . ." she choked back a sob, ". . . don't leave me like Cedric did."  
  
Santavaj's expression changed from annoyance to sympathy. It was another face that Harry thought looked foreign on her.  
  
"Whoa," he said, "Come on, you're here to save Sirius, aren't you? Aren't you?"  
  
"Yes," she said, coming back to her senses. "Yes, I am. Potter, Cho, take the portkey back."  
  
"No," said Cho.  
  
"Cho," Harry said, "she's gotta let Sirius pass on. She's *got* to."  
  
And then Santavaj opened her mouth, but it wasn't her voice that came out. It was Sirius'. "Harry," he said, "if Ellie goes through with her purpose, you'll never see me again until you die, and even then . . . no one knows. If you let her come back and live in the mortal world with you, then you can actually talk to me."  
  
Harry looked at Santavaj, whose eyes were now those of Sirius'. What he wouldn't give to be able to talk to Sirius whenever he wanted! Her eyes, though . . . Sirius' eyes . . . they held him in place and he couldn't talk. So this was why Dumbledore had told him not to look in Sirius' eyes . . . but it was too late . . . Harry tried to remember what Lupin had been saying, about how Sirius was hurting himself, how he was procrastinating . . . but the eyes . . . Harry stayed glued to the spot, but wrenched himself away from Sirius' eyes.  
  
"I'll take Cho back," he said quietly to Santavaj.  
  
Santavaj, her eyes back to grey, nodded sharply.  
  
"Harry, how can you let her do that? Sirius is dead; what does it matter where he is?" Cho shouted through her tears.  
  
Santavaj turned to Harry. "Don't let her follow me," she said, then she kissed Cho on the forehead and began to walk down the long corridor. Harry had to grab onto Cho to keep her from following. She was yelling for Harry to let go of her; they would likely break up as soon as they got back, but Harry decided it was worth it.  
  
"Wait!" Harry called, "Sirius, wait." Santavaj turned around, Sirius' eyes, "Something I've been meaning to tell you," Harry continued . . . this was so hard . . . "Goodbye."  
  
Sirius' eyes coldly left the sockets to be replaced by Santavaj's. Sirius did not answer; Harry got the idea that his godfather was angry with him.  
  
As Santavaj turned the corner at the end of the corridor, Harry felt Cho stop struggling to get free in his arms. They both listened in silence.  
  
They heard Santavaj's voice scream, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" and this time saw a flash of light coming from where Santavaj had left the corridor.  
  
They heard a distinct *clunk* and several seconds later, a second *clunk,* followed by an arm - light, delicate, and clutching a wand, Santavaj's - hit the ground with the rest of her body. They could only see the arm because it stuck out of the doorway.  
  
Cho screamed and, to Harry's great surprise, fell into Harry's arms sobbing. Harry waited until she was a little more collected to take the portkey back; the last thing he saw was the end of the corridor . . . Ellie Santavaj's arm had disappeared.  
  
And then he was back in Hogwarts. Professor McGonagall was speaking urgently to Professor Dumbledore.  
  
Hermione was explaining how she had found out that Ellie Santavaj was a martyr demon to the only people who would listen, Tonks and Lupin ("Well, I guess the main tip-off was the fact that Ravenclaw is the only house with a female ghost, and she refused to go up into the girl's dormitories once she found that out. You see, because she was a martyr for the dead, she was so close to being dead herself that if she got too close or spent too much time around the dead, such as ghosts, then she would begin to fade and eventually become her true self, as we saw in Letni's office when she turned into a fire demon. It was because Sirius was standing right in front of her and since he was dead, she was suffering.")  
  
Lupin and Tonks were nodding and smiling; Ron was actually the only one who noticed that Harry and Cho were back. Cho had made Harry stay in Bellatrix's hideout until she had "stopped being blotchy," so she was fine and put on a smile for everyone.  
  
"Guys! What happened?" he asked.  
  
That night Harry sat in front of his fire again. It reminded him of Santavaj when she had briefly turned into a fire demon in Professor Letni's office, the way the flames licked at each other and flew ever upwards.  
  
He had to wonder where Sirius was. His plan was to wait until the morning and see if anything showed up in the fire, anything at all would be welcome to him at this point. At one in the morning, Hermione came down, yawning.  
  
"Harry, are you sure you should do that to yourself?" she asked.  
  
"I'm fine," he muttered.  
  
"Can I sit down?" she said.  
  
"Yeah, go ahead." Then Harry thought for a moment. "Hermione?"  
  
"Mmhmm?"  
  
"Martyr demons . . . do they . . . *die* once they've done their job?"  
  
"Yeah, why?"  
  
"Cho and Santavaj were really close friends; I was just wondering."  
  
"Oh." Pause. "Harry, are you going to watch the fire all night?"  
  
"Yeah . . ."  
  
"Okay."  
  
THE END  
  
END AUTHOR'S NOTE CAN BE FOUND IN THE NEXT "CHAPTER," WHICH IS ENTIRELY AN EXPLANATION OF MARTYR DEMONS. 


	7. Martyr Demons

ANYONE WHO DID NOT UNDERSTAND ABOUT MARTYR DEMONS READ HERE:  
  
* Martyr demons are something I made up. I'll try to explain it.  
  
DEMONS * Demons (in this story) are creatures who look kind of like humans but they have a natural force in place of skin (wind, fire, water, etc.). Ellie was a fire demon before she became a martyr.  
  
SIRIUS' MARTYR DEMON * Any demon can become a martyr demon. They go through rigorous testing and get called to be a martyr demon depending on their personality and how well it clashes with the death that the person who needs the martyr demon had. Ellie was a nutcase and extremely violent, so she was a perfect match for Bellatrix Lastrange. Thus she was chosen to be Sirius' martyr demon.  
  
* The whole reason Sirius was sent a martyr demon was because he died 49 years too early. A martyr demon is sort of a revenge, a consolation ticket so that anyone who died off-schedule can go to [wherever dead people go].  
  
DISGUISE/THE GHOSTS * Demons are perfectly alive, but a martyr demon knows that he/she is going to die and therefore is literally on the verge of death every waking moment. Because they are so close to being dead, being around or even near other dead things (like ghosts) makes it very difficult for them to remain healthy. As they break down, they turn to their normal state as a demon instead of their disguise as a human.  
  
In Professor Letni's office when Sirius re-entered the mortal world, Lupin shoved Ellie in front of him, telling Sirius what he had to do. Sirius was reluctant, but he was in front of Ellie for a while, within a foot, probably. This weakened her as it had when she had been being led around by the Grey Lady (Ravenclaw ghost) but to a greater extent: she briefly turned into herself as a demon. That is the same reason she had a nosebleed in the Gryffindor common room; Nearly Headless Nick had been floating around before Harry fell asleep and she had passed him on the way in.  
  
"PROCRASTINATING" * Remember when Lupin said "Sirius is procrastinating?" Well, Sirius was reluctant to let go of the fact that he had died early and could still contact people in the living world. As long as they kept taking his letters, he would stay in some sort of in-between the living and the dead. He didn't want to move on because he [as all of us] had no idea what would happen next if he moved on.  
  
* Ellie felt the same way. She had found a friend in Cho and didn't want to have to die anymore. Before it hadn't mattered, but once Cho came in things got complicated. Ellie tried to get Harry to keep taking Sirius' letters so that she could stay alive; she also encouraged Professor Letni, who was apparently easier to persuade. Remember what Dumbledore said, "Harry, Ellie Santavaj will do anything in her power to get you to take those letters."  
  
WHY HOGWARTS * The reason Ellie needed to be at Hogwarts was Bellatrix. Bellatrix must have seen the list that stated that Sirius wasn't supposed to die and known that he would be sent a martyr demon. Hogwarts was the safest place for Ellie, and she needed to look like an average student. Nice try, Ellie. Had Bellatrix managed to find and kill Ellie before she killed Bellatrix, Sirius would be stuck in the in-between area for 49 more years, which would really, really suck.  
  
SACRIFICE * Martyr, in case you don't know, is someone who sacrifices themselves for something they believe in. For instance, there have been a number of Christian martyrs throughout history. When Ellie killed Bellatrix, she then lost her life; at that point her body was nearly wasted from Sirius being in it and he was at the same time all that was holding it up. It's like a bumble bee. Once they sting you, they leave their stinger in your skin and then die themselves.  
  
END AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, that's it! The "prequel" (I really hate that word) is something I'm working on now, three chapters of it are up on the site and it's mostly about Sirius as an alcoholic. I might spin in Ellie at some point, too, though. 


End file.
